After most of the winter/spring being about 7s, American International College rolls into the DIAA quarterfinals at Bowling Green University hot on the trail of a 15s championship.

This comes after an impressive 55-35 win for AIC over Delaware in the 1st round of the playoffs, a game that was difficult to prepare for.

“We haven’t had a lot of time to work on 15s,” said prop Jamal Hadley. “We played our own 7s tournament on the Sunday before. So it was rough. But we also knew we had to execute, and especially the forwards had to execute.

Good work in the scrum set up the likes of Khabir out wide. Photos courtesy AIC Rugby.

Everyone knows that AIC has some talented backs, but those guys do need the ball, after all. AIC Head Coach Josh Macy said Hadley was a crucial part of securing that ball for AIC, and helped assert the Yellow Jackets’ strength in the scrum. 

They needed all the help they could get after falling behind 14-0 in the early going.

“We needed to shake the cobwebs out,” said Hadley. “And we had some sloppy defense in letting those tries in. But we stayed relatively calm. The important things is to say something, but in the right way. We talked about what we needed to do collectively as a team, and then we just needed to execute.”

And they did, going on a 55-7 run before Delaware scored two late. Hadley, who scored the first of those tries, was one of the few forwards to get points as the AIC backs started to tear up the Delaware defense.

“At some point tams have to accept the fact that Jihad “Khabir” is going to run past them,” Hadley said. “They’ll chase them, and think they’re getting close, and he just pulls away again. After a while, you have to resign yourself to that fact.”

The forwards get rewarded with that kind of running, but Hadley said that putting in a good performance as a tight five was important to them, and important in terms of setting the tone for the rest of the playoff run.

“We take pride in what we’re doing,” he said.

So now it’s on to the DIAA quarters and semis this weekend - two tough games.

“We know we’re going to need everyone on the roster,” said the Georgia native. “We are going to have to help each other.”

Scholz Award finalist Gavan D'Amore-Morrison below left, and GRR Freshman of the Fall Lui Sitama, below right. Photos courtesy AIC Rugby.